The Urge for Change (Blanka Kuti)

When I was little I thought my neighborhood was my whole world. After that my town, and then Hungary. Soon I started to realize there were other countries, nationalities and languages and when that happened I knew instantly I wanted to experience it all.

I learned to read at a very young age and I was always bored in school until I started learning English in first grade. I loved it. It was something new, a change from my every day routine. Geography was my other favorite subject, because I could learn about other countries.

I remember when I first went abroad, to Croatia I think, I didn’t even want to come home, it was so exciting. Whenever my parents would ask me where I wanted to go for the summer I always told them: I don’t really care as long as we leave Hungary.

I’m really grateful to my parents for taking me to such nice countries as Spain or Italy or just paying for school trips to England or France. Both of my parents use other languages on a daily basis at work, so they have always been supportive of my constant need a travel and learn.

That’s how I got into participating in youth exchanges. One day my mum sent me an infopack to a youth exchange in the Netherlands called Back 2 Basics because she thought it would be interesting for me and that changed my life. I didn’t know that it would have such an impact, but I applied because I thought it was a great opportunity and I’ve never been to the Netherlands anyway. I was really excited when I got accepted, and I didn’t even know what was coming for me. It was so much more than I expected and one of the best experiences of my life.

And from that on, I was on a roll and no one could stop me. I applied to all the exchanges I could an all were something new, something totally different but they all had one thing in common. They changed my life. They changed me. I got experinces I never even dreamt of having and made friendships for life and learnt things I’ll never forget.

My advice to everyone is, that if there is something, anything that you want to do, or change just go for it. If you really feel it in your guts, that you need to do that then, just do it. And make sure you’re having fun while doing it.